The present invention is related to a transmission arrangement for a vehicle, and more particularly to a compact transmission arrangement having a constant mesh transmission and a bevel gear mounted within a common housing assembly.
Heretofore, transmissions for vehicles such as large earthmoving tractors have been difficult to service. For example, they are usually disposed in the central portion of the vehicle immediately behind the engine so that it is necessary to disconnect substantial portions of the operator station or frame to enable the transmission to be lifted or lowered from within the confines of the vehicle. Furthermore, a bevel gear and cross drive arrangement is usually disposed in series with the transmission in a separate compartment so that it is also difficult to service. Such power train arrangements are excessively long because it is a problem to align the horizontally oriented multispeed transmission and transversely oriented bevel gear and cross drive arrangement. Since the bevel gear delivers power to the cross drive and the opposite sprockets or wheels that propel the vehicle it is normally of large diameter and substantial clearance is required for proper mounting thereof. As a consequence the axis of the bevel gear is usually located elevationally above the axis of the transmission output shaft in order for the various elements to clear one another and a transfer gear train is thereby required to couple them together at a sacrifice of additional cost and space. Another disadvantage is that these long arrangements often extend outwardly to a point where the elements thereof may be exposed to possible damage during use of the vehicle, or alternately to a point where the elements may interfere with proper mounting of auxiliary equipment.